Plastic Piranha is working on their new FPS Rekoil which takes players back to the core of what the genre was before perks, before kill streak rewards, and back to when good shooting and quick reflexes was all that it took to succeed in a deathmatch.

Rekoil was shown off in the Justin.tv booth at PAX which is a clear indication of what Plastic Piranha wants this game to be, an eSport. The game caters to a core shooter where skills are all that is required.

This PC multiplayer only game was heavily inspired by Call of Duty 2 and the gameplay reflects this. It feels like an old school shooter but has the visuals of a modern one.

The level I played on was a small symmetrical industrial map. Right after I spawned I ran to the side of the map and died almost instantly. I felt like I was playing Counter-Strike 1.5 for the first time again. I welcomed the feeling of getting out gunned over and over again, while slowly improving my skills.

The speed of the player feels faster than the modern day shooter and doesn’t use any sort of fancy sprinting mechanic. It doesn’t take more than a few bullets to take down an enemy or be taken out, which makes surviving a firefight feel much more rewarding.

After I got the hang of the movement, I was able to start doing damage and start getting kills. The respawn time is virtually instant, keeping the fire for revenge burning throughout the match. Rekoil will launch with 10 maps and a variety of different modes.

Keeping in line with the fundamentals of a classic first person shooter, there are no cover systems. Instead players have the option of leaning left or right to get a sneak of what is hiding around the corner.

Rekoil has everything a real PC game should have. Dedicated, customization servers. Day one mod tools and support. It even has integrated IRC support for you and your clan to stay in close contact at all times. With all of these features it will be interesting to see if the fast deathmatch chaos with twitch reaction times will win the hearts of modern FPS players and if Rekoil will establish a community as committed as the core Counter-Strike community.

No release date for Rekoil has been given, but it will be released digitally for $15.